Koch, who made his fortune investing in the likes of Betfair and Plymouth Gin, and who also founded LEK Consulting, said: “Life for the less fortunate third of the population in the UK and other rich countries is not improving at the rate it can and should. The reason is nobody has come up with a simple, radical, free market idea to make the difference.”

The competition, which will run until January, comes with a £50,000 prize for the best idea and will be judged by a panel including former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith and Jeremy Browne, ex-Lib Dem minister and now the City of London Corporation's representative in Brussels.

“The task now is not simply to assert the benefits of liberal economics, important though that remains, but to understand too why concerns exist about its value, and to meaningfully address those concerns.”